Miscellaneous – Page 23 – Feathered Photography

Shrikes, Pellets and Photographer’s Frustrations

For about three years now one of my photography goals has been to get a series of quality shots showing a Loggerhead Shrike regurgitating a pellet. My requirements were that the images must be sharp with good detail and light, there must be no significant distractions or clutter to interfere with the behavior, there should be light in the eye (a catch light) and the last shot must show the pellet after it has left the birds mouth. This post is a progress report of sorts on how I’ve fared with the goal. I’ll include some lessons I’ve learned and mistakes I’ve made so I hope you’ll bear with me through a few less than ideal images which help to illustrate some of those lessons. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This was my first image of a shrike ejecting a pellet (3/3/10). I didn’t anticipate it happening and wasn’t even sure what was going on until I processed the image. I got two almost identical shots that showed the pellet in the mouth and missed the pellet as it was ejected (I think I remember my buffer filling up just about then). I was also too far away for good image quality – this is a large crop. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc On the next opportunity (8/5/11) I was frustrated by obstructing branches and a poor light angle. While this young bird was ejecting the pellet it was facing mostly toward me which put its face and the pellet in shadow. Then the juvenile did something completely unexpected…

Odd Behavior In A Young Male Northern Harrier

It’s likely that I’m more interested in bird behaviors than some of my readers – if so I hope you’ll bear with me through this post. Even though the light was terrible for photography much of the time, witnessing this odd behavior was a treat for me. As most folks who try to photograph harriers know, they’re generally an elusive quarry and difficult to get close to. Occasionally you may get a close fly-by if you’re lucky but yesterday I had an experience with a harrier that I had never seen before and I’ve spent a lot of time around harriers. Mia and I first found the bird (a young male just transitioning to adult plumage) perched close to the road and as we attempted to get close for some shots it lifted off, just as we expected. I assumed it was long gone as usually happens with these birds but that’s not how it turned out. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As we were preparing to drive further down the road we noticed the harrier coming back and it landed quite close to us again. Very unusual, so we decided to hang around and see how the cards played out. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The harrier began to call. Sometimes it sounded like the typical harrier call that I’ve heard so many times in the past but occasionally this bird sounded different – Mia thought it sounded almost like a parrot. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It stayed on the same…

American Kestrel Preening on a Rabbitbrush Perch

American Kestrels are pugnacious and skittish little falcons that are usually difficult to approach. But last week I found a cooperative male warming himself in the early morning sun while perched on rabbitbrush. Though feisty by nature this kestrel looked almost cuddly while all puffed up against the cold and nestled into the bush. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I first approached him head-on which gave me some images where bird and perch combined to produce a pyramid shape that I liked. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But then I maneuvered to get a different angle so that at least part of the tail would be visible. In these early shots my camera settings were meant to give me enough shutter speed for the take-off that I fully expected. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 250, 500 f/4 But when he began to groom contentedly I started fiddling with my settings to get shutter speeds and depth of field more appropriate for the situation. Here he is passing one of his tail feathers through his bill in typical preening behavior. 1/1600, f/8, ISO 250, 500 f/4 He gave me a variety of preening poses that I liked. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 250, 500 f/4 Some of the neck feathers are difficult to reach so they go through some strange contortions in an effort to get to them. 1/1600, f/8, ISO 320, 500 f/4 Here the eye was half closed but I was still able to get a catch light. …

Kiting Rough-legged Hawk

Kiting is the ability of some birds to maintain a stable position in the air by using air currents rather than by the flapping of wings or hovering. Last week I had a wonderful opportunity with this young Rough-legged Hawk while it was kiting in the stiff wind rising up from the Antelope Island causeway. The light was good and the bird was cooperative and let me get close – what more could a bird photographer wish for? 1/1000, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It was amazing to see how still in the air this bird could be – often maintaining the same relative position to the ground without significant wing movement for long periods. I swear that if I had been using a tripod I could have focused on the bird, walked away for 10 seconds or so and then returned and snapped the shutter with the hawk still in the frame and without having had to look through the viewfinder or refocus. A bit of a stretch perhaps, but not by a lot. 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Much of the time the hawk was hunting – looking down into the grasses for voles. That head position doesn’t provide the eye contact that is photographically desirable but I wanted to include a shot that illustrated hunting posture. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The hawk caught several voles while I was photographing it. In this instance the bird immediately took to the air with the very young vole… …

Just a Shot That I Like… #7 – Ring-necked Pheasant Roosting In Tree

Many folks think of Ring-necked Pheasants as strictly ground dwelling birds but that’s simply not the case. These pheasants regularly roost in trees at night and the following morning they will often be active in the roost tree for up to an hour before descending to the ground for the rest of the day. 1/800, f/8, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Virtually every time I’ve seen these birds in trees it’s been on very cold, sunny mornings so I’ve always had the impression that they’re sunning themselves to warm up a bit. Usually they flush to the ground for cover before I can get close enough for quality photos but this cooperative male apparently decided that his chill was more of a threat to him than I was. He let me shoot away from close range for quite a while even though he was perhaps 20′ up in the tree and on a very exposed branch. Long-tailed birds like pheasants and magpies can present difficult compositional problems when cropping for presentation but I though this vertical crop worked out well with him on the diagonal perch. Ron

A Very Cooperative Rough-legged Hawk

In a previous post I mentioned that I had been encouraged by the number of Rough-legged Hawks (roughies) I’ve been seeing this fall. Well I’m delighted to report that the situation continues to improve. On virtually every photo expedition over the last few weeks I’ve seen several of them and on two recent trips we’ve made about a dozen sightings of different individuals each time. However getting good photos of them is a different story altogether. After a season in the high arctic they’re very unapproachable and even when I have been able to get reasonably close they’re usually perched on an unattractive sign or post and take off away from me. All that changed a few days ago though when we found one very cooperative bird. This species has the most different male and female plumages (sexual dimorphism) of all our buteos and I’m quite sure this is a light phase female. 1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We first spotted this bird on a low wooden post that resembled a piling and I was pleasantly surprised that it let us approach (in my vehicle) with no signs of nervousness. It was early on a cold, frosty morning and while looking through the viewfinder I assumed that the material on top of the post was spider silk that had collected dew and then frozen. But after looking at the photos at home I wasn’t so sure so the next day I walked over to the post to check it out. Duh – should have known. It was frosted bison fur. This was Antelope Island…

Strange Encounter with a Northern Harrier and a Junco

For me, life just doesn’t get much better than when I’m watching interesting or unusual bird behaviors up close. I was photographing this male Northern Harrier out my pickup window while it was perched on the clump of snow-bent vegetation you see in the image below when I heard a soft scratching sound coming from the front of my truck. I quickly glanced to my right and noticed that a Dark-eyed Junco had landed square in the middle of the hood of the truck. I thought that was unusual of course but I was more interested in the harrier so I quickly turned back to watching him through my viewfinder and it immediately became apparent that the harrier was now fixated on that junco. 1/3200, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I’ve spent hundreds of hours watching and photographing harriers and it’s virtually unheard of for one to take off in my direction when I’m this close to the bird. Usually the direction of take off is away from me or if I’m lucky it might be either to my left or right. But this one had apparently decided that it wanted junco for lunch and when it launched it immediately turned slightly and headed straight toward the junco on my truck hood. 1/3200, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc If you look carefully at the harriers eyes in all four shots you’ll notice that he isn’t really focused on me – instead he’s looking slightly to my right, directly at the junco on the hood of the…

Angry Barn Swallow

As I approached the parking lot at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge just before taking the loop road there were myriads of swallows flying around as per usual in spring and early summer. I noticed this Barn Swallow on a post and decided to take a few shots. It let me approach very closely and I didn’t know why at first but it soon became very apparent that this bird was in distress. If you look closely at the image above you’ll notice that there is “something” connecting the tips of a tail feather and one of the primary wing feathers that prevented this bird from flying and as a result it was a very unhappy and frustrated bird! I photographed this swallow for over 10 minutes as it struggled to solve its incomprehensible problem. It would alternately attempt to break the connection by raising and extending its wings and… trying to reach the problem area with its beak, which it just couldn’t quite do. At times its apparent anger and frustration (anthropomorphic of me, I know) became quite evident as it would momentarily cease struggling and just sit there and call out pitifully. But eventually the connection between the feathers broke and the bird flew off instantly – so fast that I missed the shot. I still don’t know for sure what substance caused this problem. It has been suggested by others that it could have been spider silk. I’ve also wondered about the possibility of sticky tree…

American Kestrel, Preening and Stretching

This slightly wet and bedraggled (but still handsome) male kestrel was quite wary of me as I approached him on his favorite perch. 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 500, EV +0.67 American Kestrels are notoriously difficult to get close to and several times he nearly flew off as I slowly worked myself within good shooting distance. But it had been a cold morning and these birds are more “sticky” in the chill so he allowed me a relatively close approach. 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV +0.33 Soon after he became comfortable in my presence the warming sun came out (as you can tell by the difference in background in the first two images) and he began to preen. I got many interesting images of him working on his tail feathers but this one shows the eye best. For protection of their eyes they typically close them as they run a feather through their beak. 1/1000, f/8, ISO 640, EV +0.33 And then he began a long, slow stretch – first by fanning his tail… 1/1000, f/8, ISO 640, EV +0.33 and then stretching out his left wing downward. As you can see, they often stretch all three “limbs” at the same time – tail, wing and leg. 1/1000, f/8, ISO 640, EV +0.33 When it was over he fluffed up his feathers and held this position, with one foot up, for quite a while to enjoy the warmth of the sun. I have many photos of perched kestrels but I don’t often get…

Burrowing Owls of Antelope Island

I simply adore watching and photographing Burrowing Owls. They show more personality and cute little quirks than any other avian species I’ve photographed – especially the juveniles. There are usually three problems with shooting these birds though – finding them in the first place, getting close enough to them for high quality photographs without disturbing their normal activities or making them nervous and catching them out in the open or on an elevated perch so that the vegetation that usually surrounds their burrows doesn’t obscure the birds. Two summers ago a family of these owls had their burrow right along the road on the Antelope Island causeway. They were obviously very accepting of all the traffic so getting close without disturbing them was no problem – I’d just pull up on the road edge close to their burrow and stay in my pickup to photograph them. I photographed them for almost two weeks and I’ve kept a ridiculous number of those images- just can’t make myself delete many of them. The family consisted of both parents and four juveniles. I spent most of my time photographing the juvies – they’re just so vivacious, spunky and full of life that they make wonderful subjects. The problem at this burrow site was two-fold – lots of obscuring vegetation and then when they did perch up higher it was usually on some unattractive pieces of broken concrete adjacent to the burrow. 1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Occasionally one of the juveniles would be perched on this rock when we…

The Trouble With Harems

Mia and I spent most of this week on a camping/photography trip to Flaming Gorge, Utah and we had some wonderful photographic opportunities with pronghorns. We camped on an isolated peninsula and it happened that a buck pronghorn was using the topography of the peninsula to help him keep control of his very large harem of females. The herd consisted of the lone buck and many females – both adults and juveniles. The male was in full rut and frantic to keep his does together and prevent several other males from running off with them. Does have varying mating strategies. Some does, called “sampling” females, will visit several males during the breeding season if allowed to do so. Others, referred to as “inciting females”, behave as sampling females until they come into estrus when they move off from the males which incites fights and aggressive competition between the males. These females always immediately mate with the winning male. Some females employ a third strategy where they join a single male and remain with him throughout estrus – these does are called “quiet” females. Canon 7D, 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This poor buck was trying to control at least 28 females and was struggling mightily to do so. One evening we were at the bottom of a string of small hills just as the sun was setting (thus the warm, golden light in these photos). The buck and his females were strung out on the crest of several of the hills and one of the does was giving him a hard time by…

Avocets and Phalaropes in a Hailstorm

Recently I’ve been tardy in posting on this blog because Mia and I just recently returned from one of our favorite camping/photo destinations – four days at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. This trip was a memorable one (as they always are at RRL). Canon 40D, 1/200, f/16, ISO 500 @35mm, ev 0.0 5:30 pm. We were photographing American Avocets and Wilson’s Phalaropes on one of the refuge ponds when we looked behind us to the west and saw this impressive storm heading our way. It was really dumping on the foothills surrounding the valley and we figured things might get interesting so we decided to stay at the pond and see what happened. Good thing we were shooting from my pickup or we’d have been in trouble… Canon 40D, 1/250, f/16, ISO 500 @17mm, ev +0.33 5:52 pm. The slow-moving storm took a while to get to us but when it did it was impressive. It began to rain very hard. It was so intense that neither of us could keep water off of our lenses – in spite of the 7″ long hood on the end of my 500mm lens. I love my new Ford F-150 pickup but the engineers did a poor job on the roof rain channels and water simply poured in off the roof whenever a window was down. As you can see in my side mirror, Mia (who shoots from the back seat) has taken a temporary respite from the downpour and has her lens pulled in and her window…

White Pelican Stretching Pouch in Flight.

American White Pelicans are known to do some pretty strange things with their pouch – one of them is pouch stretching (I’ve been unable to find an official term for the behavior). A four year old image – I no longer have the original file so can’t access exif data They pull their head back and force their very flexible pouch down over their neck and upper chest in a process that looks, well.. bizarre. I don’t think this behavior is particularly unusual as I’ve seen and photographed it several times. According to Birds of North America Online the function of this display is “uncertain”. Canon 7D, 1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 500 However, these birds are also fully capable of pulling the bottom of their pouch up above the level of the lower mandibles without having to pull the pouch down over their neck. I don’t fully understand how they’re able to do this since the pouch itself is non-muscular. Internet research on the subject has been unproductive. I assume there must be some form of bony or cartilaginous rod that extends from the throat area down the middle of the bottom of the pouch about half way to the tip of the bill. With muscular control of the base of that extension in the throat area they would be able to raise the bottom of the pouch above “horizontal”. I’ve seen them do it twice – the first time without a camera while the bird was perched. But the second time, a couple of weeks ago, it was done in flight which…

Handedness in Short-eared Owls

Last summer Mia and I spent four days photographing a family of Short-eared Owls in Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. There were two baby owls in a nest under a sagebrush guarded over constantly by the female while the male hunted and brought in food. That food in every instance that we saw was a vole (mouse-like rodent). Many of the photos I took were of the male in flight, returning to the area of the nest with a vole in his talons. Male with vole It wasn’t until I returned home and began processing the images that I began to notice that the male always seemed to carry the vole in its left foot. This piqued my curiosity about something I’d never considered – do some birds show “handedness” – the preference of using one limb as opposed to the other? Could this male owl, or perhaps all Short-eared Owls, be left-“handed”? Once again, carrying the vole in the left foot So I decided to do an inventory of my images of these birds to see what would turn up. After culling my photos of these owls from this trip I had 271 photos to go through. Most of those were flight shots of the male and in more than half of them he was carrying a vole. My goal was to try to determine how many “sorties” he made with a vole that I had photographed (I often got multiple shots of the male with the same vole in the same sortie) and determine what percentage of the time he…

Burrowing Owls – Clowns of the Bird World

Of the many bird species I’ve photographed, Burrowing Owls by far show the most “personality”. Their repertoire of silly antics, funny poses, stretches, yawns and grooming behaviors are a photographers dream. And once they feel comfortable in your presence they will often allow you to photograph them for a very long time without flying off or retreating to their burrow. But you have to find them first… The antics of juveniles are even more exaggerated than those of adults. Most of the images I will present here are of juveniles. Some of the shots were taken in less than ideal conditions (harsh light, shadows, clutter) but I think they illustrate the goofball personalities of these birds well. Giving the photographer a suspicious look It’s difficult to resist being anthropomorphic (ascribing human emotion or motivation to non-human species) when it comes to Burrowing Owls so I won’t even try. This juvenile looks very suspicious of me but in reality I suspect that it was only curious. Wing-stretch with lifted foot, or “They went that-a-way!” Topsy turvy owl Juveniles practice their parallax skills regularly. It involves bobbing and twisting their heads so their eyes can view an object (in this case me) from different positions. This allows them to better determine distance to that object. I’m sure it’s serious business for the owls but to us it can sure look silly. And adorable. Reaction to sudden and unexpected rain One sunny and hot August morning I was photographing a pair of juveniles when a single cloud passed overhead and…

Category: Miscellaneous